Dallas real estate broker David Winans coined the term 'Texaplex' six years ago in a video describing the rapid economic growth of the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio metro areas. The video has almost 200,000 views on YouTube, and Rick Perry used it as promotional material while governor.

Now, Winans has self-published a 145-page book that heralds the Texaplex as the largest player in a fourth wave of American economic growth centered around the New South. Not counting free ebook downloads, Winans has sold about 1,000 copies of the book since it was published a month ago.

Four of the five cities in the Texaplex are among the 11 largest cities in the United States, and the four contain almost 75 percent of Texas's population. Winans says they also power Texas' growth, which he attributes to two key factors: plentiful jobs and affordable housing.

Winans' real estate business has benefited from the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area's economic boom. Housing shortages coupled with an influx of new Texans have created higher demand and prices, which mean more business for the 125 agents at David Winans & Associates. Still, Winans says he approaches the Texaplex project as a hobbyist.

Winans spoke with the Chronicle about the Texaplex. Edited excerpts follow.

Q: What inspired you to coin the term "Texaplex" six years ago?

A: It was in late 2008 when everyday there was this bad news about banks collapsing and foreclosures. Because I'm a real estate broker, I could tell my agents were getting down and depressed, so I did a PowerPoint about how great Texas is, and they got excited about that. I thought, 'I'm going to put this into a video,' so I put it into a seven-minute video and I sent it across most of the Realtors in the state of Texas and the thing just kind of took off.

Q: How has the Texaplex changed in the past six years?

A: I'm not so sure it's changed that much in six years, but I do believe there is a lot more focus of the world looking at Texas. If there's one safe place to invest in the world, it's the Texaplex area.

Q: Who then is the audience for the book?

A: The person buying the book is really just the general public. There's also a lot of commercial real estate brokers who have been buying the book because they want a tool to show people why they would want to invest in the Texaplex area. But the story in the book and in the video is that we go about our lives everyday in Texas, yet I do not think we can fathom the type of growth that is going to be coming, where you're going to see (the Houston metro area) going from a population of 6.6 million to 14 million. I don't think we can comprehend what that type of growth is. It's just unimaginable what it's going to look like in 25-30 years. I'm trying to be the town crier telling people this is what's coming.

Q: What factors will help the Texaplex keep growing?

A: One of the biggest things we have is that we're in the middle of a time zone, so to do business in Texas really makes sense from the east and west coast, being in the middle. Trucks can get anywhere in a very short period of time from Texas. There's obviously tax incentives for companies to come here, and housing is affordable relative to other places in the country, so companies moving here can have labor in good supply.

Q: Where does Houston fit into this growth trend?

A: I think Houston is the next great world city. It's so incredibly diverse. The port is huge and with the medical industry it's got it all. And I think they're very progressive. The four metros of the Texaplex are all so different, so I never think of us as competing. That's what makes the triangular area very dynamic.

Q: Are there any consequences to the rapid growth the Texaplex is experiencing?

A: You're bringing in a lot of people from outside into Texas, so Texas is going to change politically. And more people probably means more regulation, and we obviously have to solve some problems like our water supply. Is it going to change it for the good or the bad? You could look at it either way. With that many people crowding in, I don't know.